One of the things I missed after leaving the Corps was the familiar &#8220;lingo&#8221;. Because of its small population size the Marine Corps may have the best developed jargon of any of the services. The population of the Corps is about that of a medium sized American city, or a large university's student population. As Marines do their tours through the Corp&#8217;s duty stations they meet the same people over and over again. So once a new term or idiom catches on it makes the rounds, too. These often have cryptic and ironic meanings a lot like a secret language.

"Pisscutter:
A Marine&#8217;s garrison cover. Sometimes pisscover. The word was used extensively in the middle 20th Century, presently out of vogue due to a serious lack of political correctness. The etymology of the word is not known. One possible explanation comes from Kate Gladstone who says, "I have heard 'pisscutter' used by (elderly male) non-Marines to describe anything which has a sharp, spiffy-looking fold or edge or crease - e.g., a particularly well-made hat-brim, or an admirably crisp crease in a pair of pants." In the novel Shogun by James Clavell the word is used to refer to a harbor that was particularly difficult to navigate."

Click to expand...

(wow! this is a stretch!)

In my own day the Pisscutter was the 'envelope' shaped soft cover or hat. When the Marine was inside (under cover of roof) it could be conveniently tucked between the belt and the trousers. Back then there was no confusion about the word's "etymology" because of the way it looked when it was being worn. With its little folds it looked a lot like what the words describe: A part of the female anatomy which is often described as "the little man in the boat", and very close to the female urinary orifice.

Two Pisscutters

The misunderstanding, I believe, comes from the descriptive term "garrison cover". The Pisscutter, at least in the 60's, was supposed to be worn only in the camp or base. The barracks cover was required to be worn when travelling off base.
The meaning got lost when the term was used to describe the ordinary garrison cover was confused with a barracks cover which looks more like a jug or a jar, which inspires the term "jarhead."

A Barracks Cover
Which in no way fits the description of our favorite cover.

US Army soldiers wear a similar hat; what do they call it?

This confusion was no doubt contributed to by the common wearing of the soft "utility" cover which is now allowed in public places but then was confined to base and camp.

As my gunny in FMSC told us one day when they were allowing us Corpsman to play war games where we actually got to carry guns and pretend to be shooting the enemy (who were wearing helmets...our team were wearing watch caps)

"If the man's has a helmet, ding him. Ding him if he has a helmet. Helmet ding, ding helmet.. got it?"

If but only life were so simple as those happy war games we played back then.

One of the things I missed after leaving the Corps was the familiar lingo. Because of its small population size the Marine Corps may have the best developed jargon of any of the services. The population of the Corps is about that of a medium sized American city, or a large university's student population. As Marines do their tours through the Corps duty stations they meet the same people over and over again. So once a new term or idiom catches on it makes the rounds, too. These often have cryptic and ironic meanings a lot like a secret language.

"Pisscutter:
A Marines garrison cover. Sometimes pisscover. The word was used extensively in the middle 20th Century, presently out of vogue due to a serious lack of political correctness. The etymology of the word is not known. One possible explanation comes from Kate Gladstone who says, "I have heard 'pisscutter' used by (elderly male) non-Marines to describe anything which has a sharp, spiffy-looking fold or edge or crease - e.g., a particularly well-made hat-brim, or an admirably crisp crease in a pair of pants." In the novel Shogun by James Clavell the word is used to refer to a harbor that was particularly difficult to navigate."

Click to expand...

(wow! this is a stretch!)

In my own day the Pisscutter was the 'envelope' shaped soft cover or hat. When the Marine was inside (under cover of roof) it could be conveniently tucked between the belt and the trousers. Back then there was no confusion about the word's "etymology" because of the way it looked when it was being worn. With its little folds it looked a lot like what the words describe: A part of the female anatomy which is often described as "the little man in the boat", and very close to the female urinary orifice.

Two Pisscutters

The misunderstanding, I believe, comes from the descriptive term "garrison cover". The Pisscutter, at least in the 60's, was supposed to be worn only in the camp or base. The barracks cover was required to be worn when travelling off base.
The meaning got lost when the term was used to describe the ordinary garrison cover was confused with a barracks cover which looks more like a jug or a jar, which inspires the term "jarhead."

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